Christ. I actually was starting to feel good once Viceroy managed to get the car moving again. And then, what a cock-up. Those fuckers in the fort better send some guns and shit out even if Seline stays(she probably remained voluntarily anyway). The thing that always gets me the most in any post-apocalyptic story is how the survivors will just straight up fuck each other over and usually for not much reason. As much as I laughed when Shaky said, "They nicked our bloody Yank", I was fuming with hate for the people in the fort. After all the trouble our little band of survivors went through to get those medical supplies to them, for those worthless shits to blatantly screw our heroes over was painful.

I'll admit, as soon as you mentioned hearing Viceroy's story when he got back I was terrified you were going to kill him off but lo he survived. He's my favourite, I think. His story is bound to be ace.

Saw it coming with the soldiers, but I'd expect better of the Black Watch. Hopefully it's not a 28 Days Later situation in there...

I think Seline stayed deliberately. Think about it. Last chapter she's dolling herself up, lipstick and eyeliner. She seems very conflict averse(sp?). Coming back to the world outside Cava seemed to be a nightmare for her. She probably had some inkling that she was looked down upon on Cava. She was not valuable enough to keep on the island. She might think throwing her lot in with a bunch of big strong soldiers who haven't seen a clean woman in months might be the way to go. She might be right.

If the Fort has lasted as long as it has, it might hold up indefinitely. Britain at this point is pretty depopulated and the Crossed at the gates will probably stay there until they kill each other or die from exposure. There might not be that many big herds of Crossed left in the country. Then dealing with singilar or small packs of Crossheads is much easier.

And of course screwing over our heroes is par the course. No rules against it. Everyone is the hero of their own story.

Those limey bastages probably just figured if the end of the world was nigh, they probably didn't have much time left to appropriate American culture. You can't really blame them--they're just doing what their nation of lisping girly-man island monkeys have done since the famous ass-whupping of 1776: worship Americans as their clear superiors. :)

Show of hands - who really expected her to come back out after going alone into a fortress filled with men?

No, I didn't think so either.

Seline clearly saw what was coming, as she got good and dolled up for the bunch. I'm really sort of astounded that no one else in the party did, though. I guess the game now is, did she get made up because she knew she was going to be at the bottom of a throbbing, veiny dogpile, and figured that was a fair trade for the sort of safety it offered, or because the first sight of a woman would have them all so cock-struck that it would make it all the more easy to really score a big haul for the rest of the gang?

Maybe Seline just applied the makeup to remind her of life before the shitstorm flared up, to instill in herself some superficial semblance of self esteem that she surely lacked back when she was selected on Cava for the sortie. As for this bukkake speculation, who's to say that she'd be the only female there? Does anyone know if the Black Watch is co-ed or not? Regardless, I both thank Si and the other creators for providing us with yet another compelling and unpredictable page-turning chapter.

I know every person, crossed or not, is sort of crazy and not always doing wonderful things for the world in these stories. But this speculation that Seline would naturally be gang raped or similar just for being a lady, by normal men who are trying to survive and probably just didn't want to give out ammunition because they are concerned about living, that this reaction to seeing a woman is expected of men just because they haven't put their penis in anyone for a while, men who may very well be horrified at the mere idea of any sort of sex after being subject to seeing the actions of the crossed for so long, and most of all that she was hoping for this, even asking for it by putting on make up... Well. It makes me more uncomfortable than any of the actual pages.

I may be misreading comments here. But yeah.

And as Ramon above me mentioned, we do not know that there are no women there.

Yeah, there seems to be a certain crowd who're very eager to chime in with an enthusiastic homophobic remark or gang rape scenario. I must admit I do wish they'd learn to behave themselves in the adult pool.

That said, another very nice episode, Si. I'm thoroughly enjoying Shaky's ever-deepening spiral into a leadership role as it were.

Certainly I was only speculating - and I apologize if my language was a bit 'colorful' in regards to the subject.

For the record, I suspect Si is a far more clever writer than to do what we expect - I imagine he'll surprise all of us.

But to return to the subject, I myself don't expect all the men (if it is only all men, which, the more I think about it, seems more and more unlikely) to automatically turn into a pile of rape. But this is a world were people are extremely desperate and living almost entirely without rule or rules. Also, groups tend to behave far differently from individuals, and not usually towards the higher end of the moral scale. I suppose if I was doing anything, I was voicing what my most immediate fears would be were I in Shaky's place.

Of course, if I was in Shaky's place I'd probably be dead, but that's another matter entirely.